


The Baptist

by Dearly_Divided



Category: Far Cry 5
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Probably as fluffy as I'll ever get, Soft John Seed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-07
Updated: 2019-06-07
Packaged: 2020-04-12 07:39:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,027
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19127557
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dearly_Divided/pseuds/Dearly_Divided
Summary: Rook swallowed, tearing her eyes away from the water and shaking her head. “No. Tonight. We’ll do it tonight.”She smiled hesitantly up at him, leaning into his touch as the fingers on her chin moved to cup her cheek. His answering grin was breathtaking, lighting up his handsome face.“Eleanor, do you trust me?” he asked.Wordlessly she nodded.





	The Baptist

**Author's Note:**

> Once again this was a plot bunny that ran away from me, and here we are. Enjoy :)

“Are you sure about this, my dear?” he asked, his gentle fingers coaxing her chin up to meet his gaze. 

Rook looked out at the water, still and calm and bathed in soft moonlight. It was beautiful… peaceful, and yet the all too familiar feeling of dread crept like ice through her veins.

John sensed her hesitation - concern flickered in those blue eyes of his, a little crinkle appearing between his brows as they furrowed in a frown. “We don’t have to do it, not yet. Not if you’re not ready. Joseph said there’s still time…” 

Rook swallowed, tearing her eyes away from the water and shaking her head. “No. Tonight. We’ll do it tonight.” 

She smiled hesitantly up at him, leaning into his touch as the fingers on her chin moved to cup her cheek. His answering grin was breathtaking, lighting up his handsome face.

“Eleanor, do you trust me?” he asked.

Wordlessly she nodded.

His thumb stroked across the soft, smooth skin of her cheek. “Come to me, darling,” he said, dropping his hand to reach for hers. She grasped them tightly as John began to walk backwards into the lake, his eyes fixed on her. He didn’t seem bothered as the water began to lap at his bare feet, then his jeans, but she supposed he was used to it by now. God only knew how many baptisms he’d administered under Joseph’s watchful eyes here in the Valley. 

Only Joseph wasn’t here right now. It was just the two of them, alone for miles.

When Rook had brought it up, Joseph had offered to baptise her himself, an honour only ever extended to his family. John had been the one to refuse. This was private, personal. Not even the Father himself had the right to bear witness to this intimate act.

She paused as her own toes hit the water, biting her lip. Her eyes fluttered shut, her stomach twisting uncomfortably. _Turn back. Walk away. Try again tomorrow._

“Rook-“ 

She took a deep, steadying breath in through her nose and out through her mouth. “No, no I’m fine. I want to do this, John. Please.” 

She _needed_ to do this, for both of them.

John nodded with an encouraging smile, squeezing her hand as he continued into the inky looking water. Tentatively, she followed.

Her heart rate increased as the water rose with each step forward. First at her ankles, then brushing against her calves, wetting the hem of the white cotton dress she’d donned for the occasion. As it crept up her thighs Rook had to fight the growing sense of panic that threatened to overtake her.

 _Breathe, Rook. Breathe._  

“A little further, you’re doing wonderfully, my dear,” John coaxed, now almost waist deep in the water. 

She focused instead on the warmth of John’s hands holding hers. The feel of his steadying pulse beating against her skin. She focused on his eyes, those beautiful blues, gazing across at her with so much adoration and pride it almost took her breath away. 

She still didn’t understand why he loved her like he did.

She took the last few steps to John, sighing in relief when his arms wrapped around her, cuddling her against his chest. He pressed a loving kiss on the crown of her head, humming quietly in approval.

“Perfect,” he breathed.

After all this time, her cheeks still flushed pink.

The cool night air that breezed past them sent goosebumps across her exposed arms, but when she shivered it had nothing to do with the temperature. Her white cotton dress bloomed in the lake beneath them, pure and striking against the dark water. John’s fingers trailed soothingly across her back, content just to hold her for as long as she needed it. 

“That was the easy part, right?” she asked with a sardonic smile, resolutely ignoring the tremble in her voice and praying John would too. 

She half expected him to laugh. Eleanor Rook, the Deputy who’d fearlessly run headfirst into any firefight without a second thought, terrified at the prospect of being dunked in water that couldn’t have been more than four feet deep. After every awful thing she’d been through, drowning was still the fear that gnawed away at her.

But John didn’t laugh.

Instead his arms tightened around her, pulling her in closer as he nuzzled his face into her curls, peppering her with sweet little kisses. 

 _I’ll wait,_ _as long as it takes_. He didn’t have to speak the words for her to hear them. John always seemed to have patience for her that he awarded no one else. 

She could turn around and walk back to shore right now, and John wouldn’t say a word. Being here was her choice, he wouldn’t take that from her, no matter how badly he wanted this.

It seemed like a lifetime ago when he’d pushed for her to confess to him, pushed for her to reveal every last lingering vestige of _pain_ and _grief_ that she’d locked away. It hadn’t been with the knives or screwdrivers or the threat of violence, but he’d drawn the truth out of her all the same. She’d yielded to John, telling everything, from the murder of her sister, her parents’ subsequent divorce to her own inability to deal with the loss and the survivor’s guilt – the very reason she’d run away to Hope County.

She’d given him the names of every single person she’d failed to save during her time as the Deputy (she knew them all), rehashed every failure, every injustice. When she’d sobbed brokenly, curled up in his lap and clinging to him like a lost child, he’d comforted her with soft touches and words she’d barely heard. 

He’d pushed her to shower on the days she didn’t have the strength to get out of bed, pushed her to eat when she didn’t want to move. He’d pushed her to visit Joseph and hear him speak, spend time hunting with Jacob in the mountains. He’d pushed her even when she lashed out, even when she hated him for it. He’d pushed her to heal, to _live_ instead of just surviving.

He wouldn’t push her on this.

But she couldn’t spend all night just standing there with him in the middle of the lake. She’d come to be baptised and baptised she would be.

“Do you trust me?” he asked again, his own voice calm and level.

Rook licked her lips, “Always.”

That didn’t stop the hitch in her breath as he took a small step backwards, one hand still wrapped around her waist, the other coming to rest reverently over her chest.

“Do you want this?” he asked, studying her intently. He’d see any hint of deception, any trace of doubt and call her on it. He wouldn’t put her through this if she wasn’t absolutely certain that she wanted this, wanted _him_.

They both knew this was about far more than the baptism.

Rook didn’t hesitate. “Yes.” 

He beamed, and despite the uneasiness in her stomach and the fluttering in her heart, Rook knew she was doing the right thing.

“The water will wash away your sins, your grief, your pain, all of it. You’ll be made pure, perfect,” he whispered, his eyes glimmering with anticipation. “You won’t regret this, darling. I promise. You know I won’t let anything happen to you.”   

Rook nodded, reaching up to grip his tattooed hand in both of hers. She was ready.

He leant forward and kissed her lips for the briefest of moments. “Be brave for me, my dear. Don’t breathe in, don’t panic. I won’t let you go.”

He began to speak a verse from the Book of Joseph, but Rook couldn’t focus on the words, not as he began to lower her backwards into the water. No, the only sound she could hear was the pounding of her pulse in her ears like a drum and the short, sharp, gasping breaths she took as he pushed her under. 

The moment she was submerged, the fear and panic she’d been fighting to contain clawed their way free. In the inky blackness her eyes went wide, and suddenly she wasn’t in the lake anymore, but a child in an ocean.

_Waves crashed somewhere around her, her muscles burning as she desperately tried to kick her way to what she hoped was the surface. For a moment she thought she’d done it, but the swell pulled her violently back under, tossing her about until she no longer knew which way was up. Her body, deprived of oxygen and desperate, doing the only thing it could and forcing her to fill her little lungs with salty seawater. She knew with horrifying clarity - she was going to die if she didn’t break the surface soon._

_Blackness swallowing her vision, oh but she remembered the pain. Knives clawing at her skin, her lungs on fire as they screamed for air_ –

Something pulled her to the surface - John’s arms lifting her into his embrace as she gratefully gulped down the cold night air. The wet, now see through fabric of her dress clung to her like a second skin, leaving nothing to the imagination as she shivered in his arms, but John’s eyes didn’t wander. They were fixed on her own. 

His inked fingers gently brushed away the wet strands of hair that stuck to her face, staring down at her with a look of delight, like she was his own little miracle. “You… you’re magnificent,” he marvelled. “You did so well, my dear. I’m proud of you.”

A sudden, joyful laugh bubbled out of her as reality sunk in. She’d done it, it was over. The water still lapped at her hips, but the fear was gone. In its place Rook felt… free. 

It was indescribable, but it was beautiful.  
  
Unable to stop herself she threw her arms around John’s waist and stood on her toes to press kiss after kiss along his bearded jaw. “I love you,” she whispered sincerely, beaming up at him. 

John caught her cheek as she tried to pull away. He held her there for a moment, his eyes flickering over her face, mapping every freckle, every imperfection. He made her feel naked beneath him when he looked at her like that. She used to hate it, hate the vulnerability he made her feel. Now it was a show of trust between the two of them. She was bare before him, they had no secrets. He knew her inside and out, as she did him. 

She felt the familiar heat pooling in her stomach as something shifted in those beautiful baby blues. The desire and lust was unmistakable, yes, but something else glinted behind his gaze. Something she couldn’t put her finger on.

Before she could even think to speak, John closed the gap between them and kissed her, softly at first, but then quickly transforming into something far needier, far more desperate and passionate. One hand tangled in her wet curls, the other snaked its way across her lower back, sending sparks shooting up her spine as he pulled her flush against his all too warm body. Rook was lost in him as his lips moved like wildfire against her own, making her want to melt into a puddle of pure bliss. 

She never wanted it to end, but just as she began to feel light-headed from lack of air, John released her. 

Rook made no move to back away from him, and from the way his grip tightened ever so slightly around her, he had no intention of allowing her to do so regardless.

“Marry me,” he said breathlessly.

 Rook froze, her heart skipping a beat. “I’m sorry, what?” 

The smile on his face wavered slightly, doubt and something strangely close to fear flickering in his eyes, but he swallowed, licked his lips and continued. “Marry me. I-I love you, I _need_ you. I- Rook please –” 

“Yes,” she whispered, a wide, joyful smile breaking out across her face. “Yes, John Seed, I will marry you.”

She didn’t have time to say another word as John’s lips captured hers once more.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you guys liked it, leave some Kudos or comments if you did. Also I have a tumblr @Seedlingsinner - Come say hi :)


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